The outcomes of from the AMA Council of Doctors virtual GP roundtable – Better than a backup: supporting doctors in training to choose a career in general practice – highlighted that to improve the attractiveness of general practice as a career, significant investment into general practice is required by governments.
AMACDT Chair, Dr Hannah Szewczyk, facilitated a conversation exploring levers to improve the attractiveness of general practice as a career for prevocational doctors. Participants suggested creating a positive narrative around general practice highlighting the rewarding aspects of it as a career, supporting positive and impactful prevocational exposure to general practice, and fostering quality general practice training experiences as key focus areas.
A consistent theme throughout the roundtable was that without support for supervision, general practice training will continue to suffer. General practitioners attending the roundtable reported finding it increasingly difficult to balance complex patient loads, combined with financial strain on practices, and training the next generation of general practitioners. AMA Vice President Danielle McMullen summarised by stating "Supervisors are a key part of the GP workforce and make an important contribution to teaching and training that must be adequately supported. There is such a strain on general practice at the moment that supervision is becoming increasingly challenging."
This aligns with the AMA's recent analysis that found over $3.8 billion has been stripped from general practices as a consequence of the Medicare freeze https://www.ama.com.au/media/close-4-billion-stripped-general-practice-result-medicare-freeze.
A communique from the AMACDT GP Roundtable, and a recording of the panel discussion will be released shortly.
The conversation was led by a preeminent panel including Associate Professor Riitta Partanen (Director, Rural Clinical School, University of Queensland), Mr Martin Rocks (Assistant Secretary – Training, Health Design Lab, Department of Health and Aged Care), Dr Paul Mara AM (Managing Director, Quality Practice Accreditation, foundational member of the Murrumbidgee Strategy), Dr Danielle McMullen (AMA Vice President, General Practitioner), and Dr Daniel Wilson, Co-Deputy Chair, AMA Council of Doctors in Training, Rural Generalist Fellow).
